Sports Blogs

I hate night races

There should be no more than a handful of NASCAR Nextel Cup races that intentionally finish after dark: the All-Star race and the World/Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte in May, Bristol in August, the September Richmond race and maybe the Pepsi 400.

That's it.

Make the rest start at the same time Sunday, say 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. on the West Coast, and make it easy for everyone. Forget about that twilight nonsense. Forget about the confusion (Noon? 1 o'clock? 2:30??), forget about dumping 100,000 people onto the highways at midnight after some of them have been drinking for hours. And hours. And hours.

Have you been to Joliet? Have you noticed the traffic? Have you seen where those cars is headed? Do you like getting home at 1 in the morning after 12 hours a sporting event? Or 2 a.m.? After 15 hours?

This is the sort of insanity that challenges fans. And apparently this family-friendly sport has stopped caring about kids. As if the expense weren't enough to keep them from the track, now the hours are too.

"Night racing provides an additional element of intrigue and excitement," NASCAR Chairman Brian France says in the series schedule announcement. "Running under the lights at Chicagoland on a Saturday night will be even more exciting for the fans in the stands as well as those watching from home."

If he wants real excitement, he can drive right on past the helicopter pad and sit in bumper-to-bumper, 8 mph traffic on I-55 in the wee hours with a couple of over-tired, sunburned kids in the backseast and a carload of drunken 20-somethings (or 40-somethings; it doesn't matter) honking and screaming in the next lane.